Artist of the Week

Artist: Harry MatthewsArtform: Composer

What does your work focus on?I am a composer of mostly open score pieces that deal with performers listening to pitch relationships. These pieces are built around a set of rules that performers will follow in order to play the piece. These pitch relationships can and often are very simple, for example – one rule might state that performers are to swap parts when they play the same pitch.

More recently my focus has turned to performer and audience engagement with listening to noise pollution, using field recordings - I am developing listening pieces that focus on un-pitched and unpleasant sounds. The aim here is to re-introduce sounds that we ignore and begin to understand what our sounds are doing to the natural sounding environment.

Where have you studied?In 2016, I finished my BA in Music at the University of Southampton. In 2016/17, I continued my study at Southampton to study a Masters in Composition with Ben Oliver and Matthew Shlomowitz.

Tell us a bit about your composition 'actively listening to me'.The piece that I would like to show is called ‘actively listening to me’ (2016), for flute, bass clarinet, synthesiser, vibraphone, violin and cello. This work asks performers to engage with material through listening to outcomes during the performance. The instruments are paired into three duos: (1) violin and synth; (2) flute and vibraphone; and (3) cello and bass clarinet. The three duos are positioned separately on stage, and each pair plays independently of the other groups. Each performer has two pages of music, which are titled inactive and active and each page features six events, with all events centred on a single pitch from an F major 7 chord. The major 7 chord is utilised by composers such as Eric Satie in his ‘Trois Gymnopédie’ for its ‘singular’ and ‘enigmatic nature’. This chord is often chosen for its mysterious and harmonically ambiguous qualities. The resulting sound is quite [John] Cagian in character, with random magical moments only conceived by accident. This fantastic recording was made by Ensemble Paramirabo, in Montreal, Canada. Their website is: http://ensembleparamirabo.com/en/index.php

Why do you compose?​I definitely began composing because I loved listening to music, and the more I listened to music the more I wanted to craft my own sounds. In more recent years, since studying music composition, my reason for composing has changed slightly. In my second year I read Bernie Krause’s book ‘The Great Animal Orchestra’, my eyes were opened to the world that existed before urban sounds and human-made noise pollution. I was amazed to find out how we are squashing all other animal sounds that used to make up so much of our sonic environment. I now compose to show people what we aren’t listening to anymore, and hopefully when more of us start to listen to the sounds we make, we can start to act on it.

What are your future ambitions?My next step in my pursuit for academic glory is to start a PhD. At the moment I am crafting my application to study with James Saunders at Bath Spa University and to continue studying at Southampton as well. I am currently co-musical director of a group called OUT-TAKE Ensemble. I hope that we can continue to commission works and start performing more widely around the UK. Our next step will hopefully be to start performing in London and build bridges with the fantastic concert series’ that are regularly put on and well frequented. In the long term I would like to establish myself as a composer and teacher.

What motivates you?​Definitely a deadline!

What are you afraid of?​Brexit.

What challenges have you set for yourself?The most important challenge I have set myself is to start showing people the work I’m doing (so thanks very much to Collective 31 for helping me). I was pointed to an enlightening quote recently that said: ‘you can’t find your voice if you don’t use it’. This is relevant to all those involved in the creative arts, and basically says, for me, if you’re not going to show people what you do, then what is your reason for doing it, and more importantly, how do you know it’s any good!

What is your favourite instrument to compose for and why?​I may go slightly off-kilter here and say that my favourite instrument to compose for is the human. Since my recent interests have been based on listening, I rarely find myself concerning what instrument to write for, but the person I’m writing for. Some of the questions I consider when writing music are: How can I make this performer listen in this particular way? What questions about sound could I ask them that will make their daily listening experience heightened? Why might getting this performer to engage with this sound develop their understanding of music? Having said this… I do love composing for the cello.​Have you ever failed at something and what happened as a result? What advice would you give to people as a result of that experience?I don’t know if this necessarily counts as a failure, but I have definitely written a lot of pieces that just do not work. They were terrible. The reason that these pieces didn’t work is mainly down to the fact that I didn’t discuss and test what I was composing. So my advice would be - talk about your music with other people, see if any one has any thoughts on what you’re doing and take that advice on board. Sometimes ideas need clarification in your own head and the best way to do this is to try and explain them to someone else. My other bit of advice would be to make as many friends that play instruments as possible. Ask if you can test what you’ve written and see if it works, if it does GREAT, if it doesn’t, understand why it didn’t and then find a way to make it work before it’s too late.

Anything interesting coming up soon?​On 20.11.17 I performed a concert with my ensemble OUT-TAKE at the Talking Heads, Southampton. We are hoping to continue this tradition of putting concerts on in Southampton, and we plan to put on a concert of soloists in February with a new piece. I’m writing for Ben Jameson, who is a fantastic composer and very skilled guitarist, he recently finished his PhD at Southampton University. In December I am playing an improvised concert that postludes an experimental film by Iranian/Irish filmmakers Rouzbeh Rashidi and Maximilian Le Cain. After the film we musicians will perform an improvised piece of music as a reaction to the film. This will take place at the Café Kino in Bristol, 21.12.17.